I-8 Jewish Travel: Desert View Tower

-70th and Final Installment in a Series-

Exit 77 In-Ko-Pah Park Road, San Diego-Imperial County Line, California

By Donald H. Harrison

JACUMBA HOT SPRINGS, California — The dogs that greet visitors at the entrance to the venerable Desert View Tower are alive, if sleepy in the hot sun, but there are many other animals nearby that never drew a breath of life since they were whimsically created in the 1930s by sculptor Merle Ratcliffe.

Climbing with my grandson Shor amidst the boulder patch facing the Desert View Tower, I couldn’t help but imagine what would have happened if Mount Ararat, the supposed resting place of Noah’s Ark, had been situated in the climate found here at the border of San Diego and Imperial Counties, where mountains littered with igneous outcroppings descend quickly to the desert floor.

Would the passengers of the Ark–both animals and people–somehow have become calcified, or transformed to pillars of stone, only to be discovered later by indigenous explorers and latter-day picnickers? The Desert ViewTower’s owner and curator, Ben Schultz, says the topography here, with its plenteous La Posta pluton, is duplicated in only one other place in the world — the rocky descent from the Judaean Mountains down to the Dead Sea.

Really, your imagination can run wild up here in the cliffs west of the Imperial Desert floor– as apparently Ratcliff’s did. Not much is known about the sculptor, except that he was an out of work engineer during the Great Depression years, and that he spent at least two years carving his fantasy, which today shares honors with the Desert View Tower as a state historic monument and a stellar example of folk art.  An historic marker at the site misidentifies him, calling him W. T. Ratcliff, instead of the correct M.T. Ratcliff, according to Schultz.

Schultz suggests that the crannies amid the boulders have been used for thousands of years by Native American peoples seeking protection from the winds, which occasionally can be “horrific.”  It is likely, he said, that Yuman Indians were the first to find potable water seepage in this pass through the mountains.  In the 20th century, they were followed first by Highway 80 road builders and later by Interstate 8 construction teams.  “Going down from here to the desert floor is a terrible way through, but it is the best for 100 miles,” Schultz said.  “The pluton makes a strong wall, and this is the best place in the wall to get through.”

Construction of the Desert View Tower preceded the carving of the boulders. Bert L. Vaughn, who owned the resort at nearby Jacumba Hot Springs, began the rock tower in the 1920s, but left it unfinished.  After World War II, an American flyer, Dennis Newman, purchased and renovated the tower before opening it to the public  as a roadside tourist attraction in 1950.  On land of 3,000 foot elevation, it stands an additional 70 feet tall. Visitors winding up its staircases to the top floor lookout can find eclectic collections of weapons, curios, and relics at different landings.

Ownership of the structure passed through several hands until 2003, when Schultz purchased it.  Having grown up in San Diego–near the now demolished 54th Street Jewish Community Center, where he picked up Jewish expressions while swimming  regularly in the Olympic-size pool — Schultz said the Desert View Tower always was one of his favorite places to hang out.  He said he can remember when many cars couldn’t make it up the mountain without overheating unless they stopped at the Desert View Tower.

It’s a good place to buy a soft drink and perhaps a curio, and to scan the descent to the desert floor.  For kids, the adjoining Boulder Park is a delightful playground, filled with surprises.

Is that a skeleton’s skull up there?

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Take In-Ko-Pah Park Road Exit 77, turn left to north side of freeway and turn right onto In-Ko-Pah Park Road, which leads to the Desert  View Tower.

Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World.  He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com  On Facebook is a collection of visitor photos of Desert View Tower,